Virgin Fm Achieves 9% Weekly Reach

Virgin FM in London is reaching just under 1 million listeners a week, according to the latest Rajar figures released this afternoon. The figures for Quarter 2 1995 give Richard Branson’s first FM station a 3.3% share of listening in the London region and a weekly reach of 9% (917,000).

Capital FM’s listenership appears to be falling slightly, its weekly reach is down by 1% point on the same period last year to 31%. However, the station still accounts for almost 20% of all radio listening in London.

LBC’s replacements, London News 97.3 and London News Talk, have both lost listeners against Quarter 1 1995, with the total hours and therefore share of listening down for both stations. Share of listening for London News 97.3 fell from 1.8% to 1.3%, while the share for London News Talk fell from 3.7% to 3.0%. JFM, which this week reverted back to its original name Jazz FM, now has 25,000 listeners less than a year ago.

                 Weekly Reach %    Total Hours ('000s)    Share/Listening % 
                  Q2'94   Q2'95        Q2'94    Q2'95       Q2'94   Q2'95    
Capital Tot         38      37         49039    46991        26.7    25.3    
 Capital FM         32      31         37332    35689        20.3    19.2    
 Capital Gold       14      14         11707    11302         6.4     6.1    
Choice FM            6       9          2107     1274         4.3     2.5    
Country FM           -       4            -      2482          -      1.3    
Jazz FM              5       5          2364     2465         1.3     1.3    
Kiss 100FM           9       9          6987     6506         3.8     3.5    
London Radio Tot     -       9            -      7985          -      4.3    
 London News 97.3    -       5            -      2394          -      1.3    
 London News Talk    -       6            -      5591          -      3.0    
Melody               9       9          8629     9513         4.7     5.1    
Spectrum             3       2          1134      575         0.7     0.3    
Sunrise              4       4          4668     4879         2.5     2.6    
Virgin               -       9            -      6048          -      3.3